


the story of you and me

by stickmarionette



Series: you and me [2]
Category: Football RPF
Genre: Gen, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-22
Updated: 2010-07-22
Packaged: 2017-10-10 17:53:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/102473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stickmarionette/pseuds/stickmarionette
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>A tournament, though, that's always a good time to grow up.</i>  Leo Messi and Sergio Aguero, the nature of connections and coming of age, as told through the 2005 U20 World Cup campaign.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the story of you and me

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for cornerflag on LJ.

Funny how these things happen.

  
_Ezeiza, Argentina, 2005_

"Leo, you'll be with Sergio."

Two young voices rise in protest, in perfect sync. "But I've always roomed with Oscar…"

The elderly man only smiles at the indignation. "You'll just have to make do, then."

Being boys, they both respond with a silent, resentful glance at the other.

Not the best start for the two babies of the team. Brilliantly precocious they may be on the football pitch, the elderly man muses, but boys will be boys in the end.

A tournament, though, that's always a good time to grow up.

  
Sergio's the youngest, but it doesn't really bother him. He's always been the youngest. It's not so bad with all the new people either - there's still Lucas and Oscar from the club, and he's never had trouble making friends.

Leo acts as if he's never known how. It's not that he's not nice - really, he's the most trouble-free room mate Sergio's ever had - but he just. doesn't. talk. At first Sergio just assumed that he was still pissed off about the room assignments and left him to it, but he doesn't talk much to Pablo, Neri or Oscar either, and those guys are supposed to be his friends.

On the training pitch, though, he's something else.

*

Leo's the smallest, which is normal, and he feels like a stranger crashing someone else's party, which is also normal for Argentina call-ups. Sure, he knows some of the guys from the South American Champs in Colombia - if he can just think of that time without wincing about the way it ended - but he wasn't involved with the under-17s, and he's never played in the Argentine league.

That's alright, though. Just like Colombia, he's the same as everyone else, no matter what people want to say about European clubs or Ronaldino. Just like always, he only wants to play.

*

The first time they really talk, it's at the end of their first training match, sprawled on the grass and clutching water bottles, when Sergio's curiosity gets the better of him.

"Are you really seventeen?"

Leo looks surprised to be spoken to, and it takes a long moment, almost long enough for him to assume that he's not getting an answer, for a reply. "I know I don't look like it," he finally murmurs, smile straining.

"No, that's not what I meant at all," Sergio says quickly. Geez, way to offend him straightaway. "You're really good!"

"Thanks." There's something soft and wondering in Leo's voice, so quiet that he has to strain to hear it. Sergio has no idea what that's supposed to mean, but he can decipher the way Leo's entire face has brightened just fine.

*

It's difficult, being patient. Leo's had to do a lot of sitting around and waiting in his career so far, but it's not really something you just get used to.

Not being first choice, now, that's pretty new. The only other time it's really happened to him in years was Colombia, and - well, he didn't mind it, exactly. So he'll continue to not mind it here and now, with Jose and Emiliano around and him almost the youngest in the squad.

There's a time for everything. And he knows with bone-deep certainty that his is just around the corner.

*

The night before they're due to leave for the Netherlands, Sergio opens the door to find Leo seated on the floor, staring at the inside of his bag with a frown.

"Oooh, what have you got there? Banned stuff?"

"Not…exactly," he mumbles, still staring down as if the bag holds all the answers. Maybe it did, because a moment later he shakes his head, smiling like he was back in training, and reaches inside, pulling out a black box. "You play?"

It's a PS2. Sergio just manages to keep from hugging him.

"Yeah! Have you got ProEvo?"

"Of course. I call dibs on Argentina."

"No fair! Come on, we can take turns."

The next morning, they end up poking at each other's faces and jokingly bickering about who has the worse set of black circles around their eyes before breakfast. Thankfully, the coaching staff either doesn't notice or doesn't comment.

*

At times, Sergio seems strangely familiar. He never seems worried or scared, always knows what to say at any given time, and is so open with himself that Leo finds it frightening. But there's a certain edge missing, and he knows it's unfair of him to turn around sometimes and expect to see that, like back in the old days, because in the end Sergio is not Cesc, and in place of that deliberate calm he used to find hiding in Cesc's eyes Sergio has enough joy and desire to eat up the world.

Maybe not yet. But there's plenty of time, and the tournament's about to start.

*

Some of the guys have been to international tournaments before and know each other from Colombia or Saudi Arabia two years ago, and when they talk about it, Sergio feels like an outsider for the first time since he got to Ezeiza, especially when they start using hushed tones and trying not to mention names.

It gets worse after Jose gets injured, a couple of days into training in the Netherlands, until he just has to corner Oscar and ask outright what the hell is wrong.

"You know Barrientos was supposed to be here as _enganche_?"

Sergio only vaguely remembers all the fuss, but everybody else already thinks of him as the kid, so there's no way he's going to say so. "Something like that."

"He got sent home, and Jose was supposed to replace him. Now Jose's got broken bones, so there's only Emiliano left -"

"And Leo," Sergio blurts out, surprising himself.

Oscar smiles in that odd, old-man way he and Pablo seem to have mastered. "That's a different story."

*

Night before the opening game, and they're playing the worst ProEvo game of their lives because neither of them can focus.

Sergio pauses the game with a vicious jab at the controller, and Leo opens his mouth to protest because he's - well, Ronaldinho on screen - is just about to have a shot at goal.

" - I'm sorry."

"Huh?"

Sergio looks away. "That you're not starting."

"It's fine," Leo says, shrugging. And it is. He's not jumping up and down about it, but it's not hard to understand why things have to be done a certain way. He'll wait.

There's something slightly disbelieving in Sergio's steady gaze. "Really? You're not just saying that?"

"You're not starting either."

That gets him a grin, although there's a slight twist to it. "Not the point."

Leo laughs, leaning his shoulder against Sergio's. "There's a time and a place for everything. A very smart person once told me that."

Argentina 0 - 1 USA

Ustari; Cabral, Formica, Barroso, Paletta; Biglia, Zabaleta (C), Armenteros (Messi, 46), Gago (Cardozo, 76); Vitti, Oberman

Goals scored: Barrett (USA, 39)

If the post-match dressing room was like a funeral, then their hotel room afterwards seems more like a tomb. Leo doesn't move or talk, and Sergio can't help but sit there and wonder what they'd be saying about that game back home.

When Pablo opens the door with a face like thunder, it's a relief. "Meeting. Now."

"Hey, wait - "

The door slams shut as he moves on to the next dorm.

Beside him, Leo finally stirs. "Let's go." His eyes meet Sergio's for the first time since the game ended, and there's something raw and angry in them that he doesn't recognize at all.

*

Sergio loves football. It's a passion, a joy, a rush, and he throws his entire self into it, always have, always will.

For Leo, things are different.

Football is his life. It has been for as long as he remembers.

Football has made his life. He would be a different person without it, physically smaller, and less - less certain, less trusting of intuition. Lost.

Leo is incomplete without the ball at his feet.

When he stepped onto the pitch after half-time, it was like waking up from a vivid dream. But the result, not being able to change the outcome, that cut him like a blade. It always did.

He's alright with waiting and deferring, but as Cesc had taught him - and Sergio would probably agree - sometimes that's not the right thing to do.

Some days, he has to step forward, offer himself to his team mates, to the coach, the fans, and say: trust me, and I'll do everything to repay it. The trick, as in with most things about the game, is in the timing.

In the pre-match huddle, Leo bites back a grin. "Come on. Let's start."

Egypt 0 - 2 Argentina

Ustari; Cabral, Formica, Barroso, Paletta; Torres, Zabaleta, Gago, Messi (Biglia, 84); Oberman (Aguero, 65), Cardozo (Armenteros, 77)

Goals scored: Messi (ARG, 47), Zabaleta (ARG, 91)

Sergio probably can't stop grinning even if he tried, not that he'd want to. When the journalists asked him about it, he'd always said that he was happy just to be here with the squad, but honestly, he wanted - so badly - to get on the pitch.

Whoever said that putting on the _albiceleste_ shirt made him better was so right.

Watching Leo in the first half only made him want to get out there more. It's like Pablo said, back before Leo got to Ezeiza, when Sergio had asked him what the guy from Barcelona was like.

"That kid," Pablo had shaken his head, grinning, "is a monster."

And the best thing was that they understood each other. Sergio's never been able to explain it, the way he just knew when to pass to someone and when and where to make runs playing with some guys but not others, without even looking. It takes a lot of practice, but it's not just that.

It's like the difference between two people having a conversation in the same language and trying to guess what the other person's saying through gestures. He and Leo aren't quite fluent yet, but they could be, he just knows it.

Argentina 1 - 0 Germany

Ustari; Cabral, Formica, Barroso, Paletta; Torres, Zabaleta, Gago, Messi (Biglia, 82); Oberman (Aguero, 73), Cardozo (Armenteros, 92)

Goals scored: Cardozo (ARG, 43)

They're more relieved than happy to get out of the group stages, really, after the way things started, and Leo still doesn't want to know what they're saying about their play so far back in Argentina, but at least the team is working. Not everything about it, but enough. The rest will come in time. It has to, if anything is going to come out of all this.

He's always thought that playing football with someone was the best way of getting to know them, even more than living with that person. It's the same here, because what Leo has asked of everybody else and what's he's giving in return involves that kind of understanding, and he's lucky that the guys are willing to go along with him. Now he knows Neri's smile is hiding his fragile confidence; that Pablo really is that unflappable, and that Sergio isn't afraid of anything.

One day, watching him rub the sleepy haze from his eyes, Leo says:

"You're brilliant, you know," and leaves the room before Sergio can react - or see how red he is.

Columbia 1 - 2 Argentina

Ustari; Cabral, Formica, Barroso, Paletta; Biglia, Zabaleta, Archubi (Gago, 85), Messi; Oberman (Vitti, 87), Cardozo (Armenteros, 89)

Goals scored: Otalvaro (COL, 52), Messi (ARG, 58), Barroso (ARG, 93)

Sergio's probably going to have a sore throat tomorrow from all the shouting and he won't be the only one. He's a little disappointed about not getting to play, but that's surprisingly easy to forget after such an amazing win, even when he doesn't have the sense of satisfaction that the guys who went to the South American champs have, giving their smiles a sharper edge.

It's true that Sergio hasn't played a lot of football in the Primera Division yet, but he's been in a lot of teams, and he knows what they're like. He knows when things are working and when they aren't. Back when they first got here, they didn't know what to believe.

They all believed they could do it in this game, after going a goal down, and even into stoppage time. It didn't matter whether they were favourites. They'd find a way, in the end. And they did.

*

Leo gets interviewed on his birthday by a very nice Dutch lady speaking perfect Spanish in the hotel cafeteria. She asks him what he wants as a present.

"To beat Spain," he says, without missing a beat.

Then she goes on to ask him about tactics, and he probably shouldn't tune out and wouldn't have -

Except that someone in a Spain jacket walks through the door right then, and he can tell just from the set of the shoulders that it's Cesc. Surprising that it hasn't happened before this, really, with the two teams staying in the same hotel.

Still, it's an effort for Leo to look away, try and remember what the question was, especially since he's coming their way.

"I can't talk about specifics, sorry," Leo says to the lady with a sheepish grin. "Can't go revealing secrets to the enemy," inclining his head in Cesc's general direction.

She laughs knowingly. "Of course not. You're familiar with many of the Spanish players. Do you know him well?"

"We go way back," Cesc says, smiling. He's always known the right time for everything. "Sorry for interrupting."

"That's alright. I see, from your time at Barcelona?"

"Exactly. I just wanted to come over and say - happy birthday, Leo."

He looks - well, grown-up. Cesc has always been more mature, more aware of events, but not quite like this. But then, Leo's changed too, even in the past month. So that's okay.

"Thanks," he says, smiling without a hint of sorrow.

Argentina 3 - 1 Spain

Ustari; Cabral, Formica, Barroso, Paletta (Garay, 90); Torres, Zabaleta, Archubi (Gago, 63), Messi; Vitti (Oberman, 46), Cardozo

Goals scored: Zabaleta (ARG, 19), Zapater (ESP 32), Oberman (ARG 71), Messi (ARG, 73)

It's crazy afterwards in the dressing room. Somebody starts shouting 'Brazilian bastards, hang on, we're coming for you!' and soon it's got a melody and other lines and everyone's trying to sing along. Sergio's voice is as loud as anyone's, even if he didn't get on the pitch.

The coaches will probably come in soon, break it up, tell everyone to take their shower properly, get changed and go to bed, but not yet. It feels like they've finally released the pent-up frustration of that first game, and being seen as no-hopers all the way after that. No one will call them that now.

Leo got enveloped as soon as he came in and pretty much disappeared from view. When Sergio finally tracks him down, he's dripping wet from when Neri, Pablo and Lautaro held his shoulders under the showers and absolutely beaming.

Sergio's answering grin is probably just as bright. "That was amazing."

Leo shakes his head. "We've only just started," he says, eyes fixed on the distance.

Brazil 1 - 2 Argentina

Ustari; Cabral, Formica, Barroso, Paletta; Torres, Gago (Biglia, 95), Zabaleta, Messi; Cardozo, Oberman (Aguero, 81)

Goals scored: Messi (ARG, 7), Renato (BRA, 75), Zabaleta (ARG, 93)

The Brazilians are not easy opponents, never will be, and there's only one way to beat them: by making the best of anything that looks like even half a chance. When Leo forces his way past Rafael in the 93rd minute, and sends the ball into the box, it's blind faith more than anything else. Belief that someone - Sergio, Pablo, anyone else in there - would take advantage, and score the goal they need.

That kind of faith isn't the first thing he's had to learn during this tournament, but it might be the most important.

Argentina 2 - 1 Nigeria

Ustari; Formica, Barroso, Paletta, Garay; Torres, Zabaleta, Gago (Biglia, 72), Archubi (Armenteros, 61); Messi, Oberman (Aguero, 57)

Goals scored: Messi (ARG, 40, p), Ogbuke (NGA, 53), Messi (ARG, 75, p)

Neri's suspended, so Leo's playing as a striker, and the boss took Sergio aside and warned him the night before that he might be playing a major part.

"Can't wait," he'd said then, with his best cocky grin, but here and now, in the dressing room right before the game, he's suddenly not so sure.

It's strangely reassuring that he's not the only nervous one, and that the other guys filling in for suspended starters don't look too composed either. Still, they've come this far as part of the team right from that awful first game. They all know what they have to do, it's just getting into it that's the hard part.

So he sits in a corner, feeling for once like a kid playing at being an adult, until Leo comes up to him, right before they have to go out, grinning like he's about to go for a five-a-side game on the street, and offers him a hand up.

"Ready?"

Without hesitation, he says, "of course," and wraps his fingers around Leo's.

*

It's a difficult game, possibly the most difficult Leo's ever played in, and being out of position doesn't help. Still, he's doing what he can, and so is everybody else. That has to be enough.

All he has to do is play the same way he always does, try and find the gaps, make the breakthrough, create something where nothing exists, force mistakes.

Finally it happens - a penalty made out of a half-chance after what feels like an eternity of running and tackling and feeding off scraps.

That's the hard part. The finish is easy.

*

It's an enormous thing to realize, as Sergio sprints onto the pitch - that this is the final, and everybody's counting on him to make a difference, do something to help them win. That's alright, though. He can do that much. Him and Leo, and the way they understand each other without speaking a word.

Penalty, again. This time, Sergio's the one who has changed the game, grasped something seemingly out of reach and wretched it back. Now all Leo has to do is finish it.

It's only a decisive penalty in the final of the Championships.

As their eyes meet, he's stuck by how different Leo seems right now, in this moment - calm, too calm, almost cold - to the guy he'd been forced to roomed with at the beginning. It's not just him who's noticed, either. Before, they all looked towards Pablo. But after the second game, or maybe the third, slowly everyone learned to trust Leo as well. They learned that they could lean on him when they needed to, and that he would find some kind of answer by the time the final whistle blew.

Sergio's changed, too. It's hard not to, after all that's happened, and he knows it's not quite enough. Not yet, when he can almost see the same target Leo always has his eyes set on, far off in the distance. But it's a start.

  


_This is only the beginning of our story._

  


**Author's Note:**

> 1\. **Oscar** = Oscar Ustari, goalkeeper, now playing for Getafe. **Lucas** = Lucas Biglia, now of Anderlecht. **Pablo** = Pablo Zabaleta, now of Espanyol. **Neri** = Neri Cardozo, of Boca. **Jose** = Jose Sosa, now of Bayern. **Emiliano** = Emiliano Armenteros, now of Sevilla. **Lautaro** = Lautaro Formica, now of Godoy Cruz. **Cesc** = Cesc Fabregas, of Arsenal.  
> 2\. Ezeiza is the Argentine NT's training camp.   
> 3\. That story about both of them wanting to room with Oscar is absolutely true.  
> 4\. Lucas, Oscar and Sergio all came from the same club, Independiente.  
> 5\. Leo and Sergio were both 17 years old when the tournament started.  
> 6\. ProEvo = either Pro Evoluton Soccer or Winning Eleven, depending on where you're from. They're the most popular serious of football games amongst footballers. The story of the two of them bonding because of the game is also absolutely true.  
> 6\. Leo and Cesc were really good friends as they came through the Barcelona youth system together.  
> 7\. There was a bit of controversy over why Pablo Barrientos, who had been the no.10 in the 2005 U20 South American Champs (more on that below), didn't get called up for this tournament. The official reason was indiscipline, but his club contested that.  
> 8\. Jose Sosa, who was to be a key figure in midfield, unfortunately got quite a serious injury a few days after the team landed in the Netherlands and had to be replaced in the squad.  
> 9\. "This kid is a monster" is a real quote from Pablo Zabaleta about Leo Messi, said during the tournament. Apparently in Argie slang a 'monster' is a very, very big player.  
> 10\. Most of that interview with Leo and Cesc isn't made up.  
> 11\. Neither is that song about 'Brazilian bastards', although I edited out the rudest bits. *g*  
> 12\. A lot of the players in the 2005 U20 squad knew each other from the 2003 U17 Champs, held in Saudi Arabia, where they were knocked out by a Spain team featuring Cesc Fabregas.  
> 13\. The 2005 U20 South American Championships, held in Colombia and won by the hosts, were a bit disastrous for Argentina. They started out well, but ended up not being able to score enough goals, and playmaker Barrientos' form was inconsistent. Messi, who was relatively unknown in Argentina at the time, made some appearances, mostly as a sub and ended up as Argentina's top-scorer.  
> 14\. The 2005 World Youth Championships (as they were then called), held in the Netherlands, was won by Argentina, with Messi winning both the Golden Ball and the Golden Boot. Here's what FIFA.com says about the tournament:
> 
> _After losing out to the USA in their first match, Argentina never looked back as they laid claim to a fifth title at the fifteenth instalment of the FIFA World Youth Championship. Pre-tournament sensation Lionel Messi could only look on hopefully from the bench while his mates struggled against the Americans in their opener. But after coming on at the half, he made an immediate impact and never spent another minute off the pitch._  
> 15\. Sergio Aguero emulated Messi's feats in the 2007 edition of the tournament, winning both personal awards and leading Argentina to the title.


End file.
